1/15/2009

Costa RicaAn eerie silence after the quake - Driving to the Poás volcano from Heredia seems normal until you get within kilometres of Vara Blanca, when you start to see the real effects of Thursday's quake and are overcome by the eerie silence coming from communities like Los Cartagos which has been completed abandoned. Up the Alajuela route to the Poás is a different story. Most of the shelters housing refugees are set up there in communities like Fraijanes and Poasito. Parks and empty lots have been converted into campgrounds, people pitching tents and calling it home for now. Earth moving equipment are cleaning up the roads, trucks carrying dirt from one place to another and chainsaws buzzing as they cut down trees before they fall onto the road and houses below are everywhere. Hillsides fallen into the valley below, roads cracked, some houses completely demolished by the force of the earthquake, while others next door not a nail moved. In Poasito, only six kilometres from the Poás volcano and short distance from Vara Blanca, some 500 people are taking shelter and fearing to go back to their homes, for those who have homes to go back to, as the aftershocks continue. In total there are 21 shelters in the area housing 2,000 people.